Providers of goods and services continually seek new channels through which to advertise their products. Users of computers and personal electronics, such as media players, game devices, wireless telephones, and similar devices may be amenable to ways to defray the cost of using those devices or to reduce the cost of accessories for those devices.
Advertisers may distribute promotional materials for goods and services they seek to promote by providing data storage devices, such as memory cards or Universal Serial Bus flash drives, with promotional content stored on the data storage devices. Just as mass media programs or publications are provided for free or at a reduced cost to the public because they are subsidized by the advertisements included therein, the data storage devices may be subsidized by the advertisers and provided for free or at a reduced cost. Consumers may appreciate having the reduced cost or free data storage devices. However, even if the promotional content is stored on the data storage devices when they are distributed, the advertisers have no assurance that the users will access the promotional content or that the users will not erase the promotional content from the data storage device to free storage for user files.